Hello,

I hitched from Mannheim to Berlin, and ended up in Hamburg instead (600km, 8 hours) As I knew Eileen was there for a concert anyway, this was no problem, and and we hitched again yesterday from Hamburg to Copenhagen, and made the same time as the bus, 6 hours, hitching with a removal van from Southampton... Now in Denmark, Copenhagen, at Eileens university library. Thanks to Robin for staying in Mannheim and for him putting everyones photos on the web. here are a select few...

Us eating curry in Kathryn´s house
Mannheim ,centre, Germany.
Boat on lake in Zurich, Switzerland
Photo line-up
stone henge, Zurich style

I said goodbye to some old friends (Jon, Ted, Ian, Sean, & Ted´s Cousin Dan) in Watford with a meal at my parents on Wednesday night. As I am only home for a day before heading off to the Middle East, I thought I would say goodbye then.

I´m now in Mannheim with Robin:Singapore exchange. Heidelburg this afternoon had a fantastic castle and beautiful riverbank surroundings and glorious sunshine. Zurich was great, and Robin and Dag:Singapore exchange drove back from there to here yesterday. 13 of us from Singapore made it to Kathryn´s place for a fun weekend of reminissing, chatting, eating and exchanging stories from the last year and a half. (Geoff, Kathryn, Jaque, Robin,. Dag, GuoLiang, Dawn, Darren, Marie-niege, Marine, Erika, Samuel, and Gavin) Lia also came wh oI met in Nicaragua last year and wh olives close by to Zurich.

future: Tomorrow I will go to Berlin and then onto Copenhagen on Friday to meet Eileen and Martijn. In December Ill be having a New Year Party in Edinburgh, fri 31st Dec. all invited, please email me for more info.

Tschüs,

John

Jim, Jamies brother has offered me a place in his flat in Edinburgh, this is good news as he's a nice guy, nice flat, very central, 5 mins to uni, on the park. So I've sent him a deposit alreay and I'll move in in Aug/Sep. I'm so looking forward to starting at Edinburgh.

Off to Zurich today, then to Germany and Denmark, then back here on the 1st and I leave for Oman on the 2nd. then two months travelling in the middle east.

All is good. I have a new email johncumbers A_T gmail D()T com. i hope you can work this out and the spammers cannot. :)

see you soon,

John

CLick on the little people at the top of this web site and see if you can play The Sound of Music... :) smiles :: take one on the house

Did I say my exams have finished? Did I say my degree has finished? well I had my final presentation yesterday, which went very well. This morning I have a meeting with my supervisor to discuss turning my project, PositionVote into a commercial piece of software for use in training and teaching.

Tonight we are having a BBQ, as long as the weather is not too bad, to say goodbye to everyone. tomorrow, my sister sarah and her husband simon are coming to visit. I've been in Hull 4 years but this is the first time that they have been here. I think we will go to Beverley, Spurn head/point? and Hitchcocks vegetrian restaurant on saturday night.

On sunday I will go back to watford. Mum and dad came last week to take all my things back. It gave me a shock the other day when I went into the shed to take my bike, it took a while to remember that they had taken it home! :-).

Hoping to have a new years party Hogmanay in Edinburgh, everyone is welcome to come, I am not sure where I will be living yet though.

The summer travels have almost begun, I will go to Switzerland on Friday, then to Germany and then onto Copenhagen. flying home from malmo in Sweden on Tuesday 1st. On wednesday I will go to Oman, then spend the next few months travelling the middle-east, Dubai, Iran, turkey, Syria, Jordon... who knows where i will end up. i will just buy a one-way ticket to Oman and then play it by ear. I have Visas for Iran and Syria already, (thanks mum for sending off my passport).

Back in UK in August some time, when Shirley will come and visit from Malaysia for a few weeks, and before I start at Edinburgh in September 15th. Looking forward to a fun few months.

John

After I left school I worked as an IT apprentice for BAE Systems for two years. I am now 1) embarrased to have worked for an arms company (although my job was not arms related), 2) disgusted at the stories of bribary and corruption that are now coming out. Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Arms firm's ?60m slush fund

The Masters degree at Edinburgh will be in this:Bioinformatics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia